Evaluation On The Cultural Contents In Project English

The National English Curriculum Standard(2011)for compulsory education(henceforth NECS),a significant document which sets the bench mark for English teaching in China,integrates cultural awareness into the general goal of English teaching.Cultural awareness helps language learners understand and properly use the target language to conduct intercultural communication.EFL(English as a foreign language)textbooks,compiled in accordance with NECS,therefore,presumably contribute to the cultivation of intercultural awareness and communication competence.This thesis,thus,makes an investigation into to what extent the set of English textbooks Project English helps develop such abilities.Though cultural contents in EFL textbooks have received a wide spectrum of examination,these studies,however,mostly focus on textbooks of senior high school and university.Relevant investigation into junior high school textbooks is relative paucity.What’s more,the mainstream textbook Project English receives far less attention in terms of cultural contents evaluation.Thus,more research should be channeled to the present study to fill in the research gap.Given the cultural items in NECS and the way researchers such as Xiao(2010)separate culture,the author divides the cultural contents in the set of textbooks into four categories—big "C" culture,little "c" culture,verbal communication and non-verbal communication,and presents these elements from three categories—native culture,target culture and international culture.Then,the questionnaire(with four dimensions including cultural knowledge,cultural understanding,intercultural communication awareness and intercultural communication competence)designed by Zhu(朱黔,2014)is adopted.150 students in a junior high school in Enshi Autonomous Prefecture participate in the research.Besides,in-depth interviews are conducted to collect the teachers’ perceptions towards the cultural contents of the set of textbooks.The results of the analysis of EFL textbooks,questionnaires and interviews are shown as follows.Firstly,Project English includes various cultural elements,which can meet the requirements of NECS.But the deficiencies are that some cultural elements should be emphasized more and a balance should be struck between native culture,target culture and international culture.Secondly,the students’ intercultural awareness and competence are satisfactory.Thirdly,most of the teachers think that the cultural contents and themes in Project English are appropriately arranged and closely related to students’ daily life,and can meet the students’ basic need to learn cultural knowledge,but that more up-to-date contents can be added to the textbooks.Finally,in line with the findings of the study,the author offers some suggestions on EFL instruction and textbook compilation.For the part of the teachers,they should make the best of the textbooks and make necessary adjustments to suit the students’needs and proficiency.They must impart more comprehensive cultural knowledge to students to equip them with a complete understanding of the target culture and make a balance between native culture and target culture.For the students’ part,they need to learn culture outside class to broaden their cultural knowledge and recognize the similarities and differences between cultures to develop cultural tolerance and intercultural competence.And for the part of textbook compilers,they must ensure the cultural presentation representative and comprehensive,the materials chosen effective and accurate,and put sufficient emphasis on pragmatic usage in terms of cultural information.